Helping businesses get online fast

The impact of coronavirus on small operators has been catastrophic. We have been helping businesses get online using skill, judgement and Shopify.

Michael and Katrina Archer left their family home in Sydney’s south and bought their dream property, and passion project, a few years ago with visions of growing and producing their own wine. The first harvest was progressing nicely until their inaugural crop was devastated by the bushfires at the end of 2019. A tough start that would be closely followed by the global lockdown that all but cut off any income from Michael’s boutique wine distribution company – Altitude701.

Watching their main income stream drain away and with no prospect of an upturn in sight, the couple looked for an online solution to stem the flow.

Rising to the challenge

eroomcreative, in collaboration with Dan Kemp from Kempez Pty Ltd, came to their rescue. In the space of three weeks we had created and registered a name, developed a brand and built-out an all-new Shopify store with over 170 products.

One of the bigger challenges was developing a user-friendly photographic solution that the client could take on and run themselves over time.

The solution was a budget-friendly Foldio foldable studio from Orangemonkie. For just short of $1,000 we organised a portable wine-bottle-sized lightbox with additional lights, phone-friendly tripod and clip-on lenses. A lightweight and easy to manage set-up that was ideal for the Archers to take over whenever they wanted.

Any business that creates their eCommerce store and thinks ‘Job Done’ is sadly misguided. It is the digital equivalent of building your store on the moon and then waiting for passing traffic to buy your products – it’s never going to work!

The SEO battle against the big boys

As is true with all websites, the actual design and build is only the beginning of the journey. Any business that creates their eCommerce store and thinks ‘Job Done’ is sadly misguided. It is the digital equivalent of building your store on the moon and then waiting for passing traffic to buy your products – it’s never going to work!

So, this is where the magic really happens. Crafting a strategic plan and then implementing it across all products is a painstaking process. As is the continual monitoring and tweaking required to gently steer the site up the Google rankings.

Overnight success is near impossible, especially in such a competitive market as alcohol; but the satisfying thing is that over time you can see the fruits of your labours gradually growing and gaining traction.

Cultivate Local was born in double-quick time and is growing steadily – check it out here and maybe treat yourself to a bottle (or twelve)!